Suspect admits shooting people at Moscow's concert venue for money
4 Min Read
The suspect admits that his handlers had instructed him to eliminate all individuals present at the concert venue.
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Ambulances wait to carry the injured to hospital following the attack on the concert venue in the Moscow suburbs (AP)
A man apprehended in connection with the fatal terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow admitted that he opened fire on individuals at the concert venue in exchange for money.
The suspect confessed during an interrogation session captured on video and shared on Telegram by Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, that he shot "people at Crocus ... for money."
عاجل 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨:
— شؤون روسية (@id7p_) March 23, 2024
أحد الارهابيين أعترف بأنه ارتكب الهجوم الإرهابي واعترف بأنه تم تجنيده مقابل 500 ألف روبل!
وبحسب قوله، تواصل معه احدهم عبر تطبيق تيليجرام وعرض عليه تنفيذ هذه العملية إرهابية.
ماذا كنت تفعل في موسكو؟!
- أطلق الرصاص من أجل المال! pic.twitter.com/8jA15QjGS4
Initially, the suspect claimed he was assured a payment of 500,000 rubles ($5,400), but only half of the promised sum was transferred to his bank account. However, later on, he stated that he had been promised around 1 million rubles.
The individual detailed that approximately a month prior, he was contacted via Telegram by an unidentified individual who subsequently provided him with weapons. He further disclosed that his decision to carry out the terrorist attack was influenced by a conversation with an associate of a "preacher".
The suspect admitted that his handlers had instructed him to eliminate all individuals present at the concert venue. Additionally, in the video footage, the detainee verified that he had entered Russia from Turkey on March 4.
"There [in Turkey] ... the documents expired, and I crossed the border here," the detainee added.
Dive deeper
A terrorist shooting took place on Friday evening at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Krasnogorsk, located just outside Moscow, followed by a large-scale fire. An observer from Sputnik who was present during the incident recounted that a minimum of three individuals wearing camouflage attire forcibly entered the music hall, shooting at people from close range and hurling incendiary devices.
As per the most recent information from the Russian Investigative Committee, the terrorist attack claimed the lives of at least 134 individuals, with numerous others sustaining injuries. Authorities anticipate that the death toll will rise as further assessments are conducted, Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobiev said on Saturday.
"As for the dead. I must say at once that the number of victims will increase significantly," Vorobiev told reporters.
"Accordingly, when we remove the debris, we will see the number of dead and injured. That is why we are doing everything we can to ensure the necessary pace of work," he added.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the detention of eleven individuals in connection with the attack, including four directly implicated in the incident. According to the FSB, all four suspects were apprehended in the Bryansk region of Russia, which shares a border with Ukraine, within a few hours of each other.
"The monsters [terror attack suspects] did not make a hundred kilometers to the Ukrainian border. We bow to the fighters who did not let them escape. We'll help them in any way we can. And the state should decorate them, of course," Simonyan said on Telegram.
It is clear that the attack was "staged by non-brothers [Ukrainians]," she added.
"Finding executors in chat rooms is a simple matter. And then the question: did the dog in a vyshyvanka [Ukrainian traditional clothing] get off the chain or was it given such a command? Either way, it's the trainer's fault," Simonyan went on to say.
Russia accuses West: Ukraine emerging as terrorism hub in Europe
On her part, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova asserted, on Saturday, that Ukraine has transformed into a hub for terrorism propagation in Europe over the past decade, aided by Western support.
"The main thing is that the US authorities do not forget how their information and political environment linked the terrorists who shot people at Crocus City Hall with the banned terrorist organization ISIS [banned in Russia]. Now we know in which country these bloody criminals planned to hide from persecution — Ukraine. The very country that, with the help of Western liberal regimes, has been turning into a center for the spread of terrorism in Europe for the past ten years," Zakharova said on Telegram.
Zelensky aide refutes Ukraine's involvement in Moscow Concert Hall attack
Meanwhile, Kiev stated, on Saturday, that it denies Russian allegations of Ukrainian involvement in the attack on a Moscow concert hall.
Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 22, 2024
First of all, Ukraine has been fighting with the Russian army for more than two years. And everything in this war will be decided only…
"The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd," Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a post on X.
